The invention concerns a composition designed to supply the trace element selenium into human beings.
In later years, increasing interest has been drawn to the substances known as trace elements, i.e. elements which are absolutely vital to the human organism, albeit in minute amounts. There are clear indications that many diseases and states of ill-health are a consequence of deficiencies of one or several of such trace elements. For example, there are reasons to suspect that certain heavy metals, such as cadmium, which are dissolved upon their contact with acid, such as through acid rains, cause a rise of the blood pressure. Animal tests have shown that cadmium-induced high blood-pressure conditions may be normalized by selenium compounds. Ingestion of the heavy metal cadmium in animals are inducive to damages to the endothelium. This, jointly with an increased blood-pressure and changes in the cholesterol pattern in the blood are considered the primary factors of arteriosclerosis. According to an American study, individuals having a high blood-pressure showed cadmium contents in erythrocytes which were double those found in a control group. Expositions in industry to heavy metals together with an excess ingestion of cadmiun present in food in combination with a selenium-depleted diet may play important parts in the pathogenesis in this regard.
Animal tests (on rats) have shown that iron (aluminium) may trigger off epileptic attacks. When selenium (IV) was ingested with drinking water, no such attacks were triggered off. Patients suffering from epilepsy proved to have low selenium contents in urine. The iron contents in plasma in one patient was considerably increased while the selenium contents were somewhat below the reference amounts. Since high iron contents are considered to start off lipid peroxidation, supplementation of selenium should reduce this disorder.
In cases of prolonged total parenteral nutrition (TPN) food diets having low contents of selenium have proved to cause muscular pain. Ingestion of selenium under certain conditions as will be explained in closer detail in the following, removed these pains completely.
Test have also shown that such muscular diseases as muscular dystrophy, non-specified muscular pains and myositis in many cases are selenium responsive. Also in some multiple-sclerosis patients remarkable improvements from selenium therapy (auto-therapy) have been found.
Additionally, attempts to alleviate rheumatoid arthritis by selenium supplementation has given interesting results. Patients suffering from this disease have increased contents of copper in serum whereas the selenium contents are reduced. In selenium therapy (for instance using Mixture 3) care should be taken to ensure that the treatment continues over a prolonged period, allowing saturation of any metallic ion surplus. Copper has an inhibitory effect on the selenium enzyme (GSH-Px), which means that in an initial stage the activity may increase only slowly.
Finland like Sweden is a selenium-deficit area. The death rate in cardio-vascular diseases in Finland is one of the highest in the world. Exposition to heavy metals, such as cadmium (smoking, food), dietary habits can in these cases reduce the contents of selenium in the thrombocytes. Cardio-vascular patients show lower GSH-Px-values in the thrombocytes. This could be expected, in view of the fact that the thrombocytes are the species in the human body that are the richest in selenium. The hypothesis that also myocardial infarction is selenium-deficiency induced lies near at hand.
One of the reasons for selenium deficiency probably is the increased acidification of the environment, which causes leaching of the food that normally supplies the body with selenium in edible form, for instance in the form of Se(IV) or seleno-methionine. As mentioned above, acidification causes leaching but some investigations indicate that selenium absorption is reduced also as a consequence of "sulfur competition".
Uraemia patients show changed trace element contents in blood, depending on impaired kidney function but also on contamination from e.g. utensils (cadmium, aluminium) in haemodialysis therapy. An excess mortality rate in coronary-vascular diseases is found in this category of patients. Supplementation of trace elements prior to or after dialysis should reduce the mineral imbalance in the body of uraemia patients.
Epidemiological studies have shown that selenium-deficit areas are oppositely correlated to some forms of cancer, such as cancer of the breast, stomach, colon and rectum. Animal tests have shown that selenium compounds (Na.sub.2 SeO.sub.3), seleno-methionine) have a protective effect against selected mammary-carcinogenic, colon-carcinogenic and liver-carcinogenic compounds. Mutagenic studies of carcinogens likewise show that selenium is effective in reducing significantly the mutagenic activity. It is therefore probable that the diet should contain certain amounts of selenium compounds in order to protect human beings against cancer. The protection could exist at several levels:
(1) protection against nucleotide peroxides; PA1 (2) prevention of imbalance in metal ions; PA1 (3) improvement of the infection and immunity defence; PA1 (4) facilitation of the microsomale detoxification; PA1 (5) anti-oxidant protection against lipid peroxides; PA1 (6) radical modulator.
The daily intake should be higher than that recommended by RDA, which is 50-200 .mu.g Se/day. To obtain a cancer-inhibitory effect it is considered that the intake should be about 200-350 .mu.g Se/day.
Treatment of various cancer forms with anticancer compounds, e.g. adriamycine, has considerable negative effects, such as a high cardiac toxicity. Since selenium compounds (Na.sub.2 SeO.sub.3, seleno-methionine) have a beneficial effect on some muscular diseases, selenenium supplementation (storing) prior to and during treatment with anticancerous preparations (also in combination with radiology treatment) should be effective in reducing some of the negative effects of anticancer compounds. Considering that the microsomal function is affected by selenium deficiency an increase of the selenium level will contribute additionally to reducing the toxic effect of the carcinocidal substances.
Patients suffering from diabetic cataract have been successfully treated with selenium plus Vitamin E. Animal tests have shown that seleno-methionine is preferable to sodium selenite to treat cataract. Selenium deficiency is assumed to increase the lipid peroxidation and thus result in an increase of pigmentation. Selenium therapy tested on cataract patients in Sweden has given positive results.